


Until the sun goes down

by DejNot



Category: Farseer Trilogy - Robin Hobb, Realm of the Elderlings - Robin Hobb
Genre: Domestic, Drabble, Gen, Patience was only mentioned in one line in passing so she's not tagged officially, Sleeping Together, [insert pining joke about pine wood]
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-08-15
Updated: 2020-08-15
Packaged: 2021-03-06 00:01:12
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,093
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/25924030
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/DejNot/pseuds/DejNot
Summary: The Fool offers to teach Fitz some basics about woodcarving, and he's as bad at it as you'd expect. Neither of them mind, though.
Relationships: FitzChivalry Farseer & Nighteyes, FitzChivalry Farseer & The Fool, The Fool & Nighteyes
Comments: 8
Kudos: 16





	Until the sun goes down

**Author's Note:**

> I didn't put this in the romantic relationship tag because nothing actually happens. It's very short.  
> Fitz's POV because I wanted to do something simple for my Official First Fanfiction
> 
> Bee...it took half a year but I finally finished this for you LMAO

FitzChivalry Farseer was not a man of patience – that was his mother’s business. He had spent his childhood embarking on juvenile adventures before maturing into a young adult that spent even more time on slightly less juvenile adventures. At least, he thought to himself, the latter was out of a sense of duty and not the excitement of a teenage boy.

He sighed as he looked down at the mess of sawdust and wood around him. He would have found it beautiful, how slivers of the fine grain curved into ringlets and waves on the ground around him if it wasn’t for the fact that he was starting again on his third stump of wood. Now, this was his problem. He had agreed to allow the Fool to try and teach him some simple things about woodworking, but he was very quickly getting agitated. The advice to _cut away from you_ and _don’t try to take off too much at once_ were all good and well in theory, but trying to sit down and do it was another thing entirely.

He had very well considered getting up and leaving, but that was impossible. There were two things pinning him to his seat on the floor of the small room – one was Nighteyes, who had shamelessly arranged himself all over Fitz’s legs and was snoring lazily away. He was sure the wolf was trapping him there on purpose, just to be horrible. The second thing that kept him fruitlessly trying to carve out a spoon – and really, at this point, he wasn’t even pretending to try – was the Fool himself. He sat opposite, hair floating around his head in wispy coils as the late afternoon sun turned him into a statue of amber. He would have stared at his face and his hair and his eyes and the small triangle of skin showing in the torn seam of his shirt, if not that his attention was already firmly latched on to the fish he was shaping from some driftwood.

The Fool had been working on the trout – and Fitz could tell it was a trout – for a few days, and had mistaken Fitz’s regard for his skill as an eagerness to learn. The brief conversation had been stilted and awkward:

* * *

_“Fitz my dear, I know you have lovely eyes but you need to stop staring at me like you’re trying to send me a message through your mind,” the Fool had said, almost pointedly._

_“I was just looking,” he’d forced out “At the way you carve wood. It’s like magic”_

_Of course, the Fool had to be terrible and say “Oh, I have magic fingers you say? Are you trying to proposition me?” which had obviously made him incredibly embarrassed. “Goodness, you’re blushing already! It was only a joke, Fitz. I can teach you how to carve wood, if you wish.” And Fitz had said yes._

* * *

Now he was once again marvelling at the Fool as he carved out impossible details onto the fish: here was a fin with skin that looked nearly translucent, here droplets of freshwater clinging to the glimmering scales of the fish leaping out of the knot of wood. Every detail was precise and intentional, every shaving a perfect cut – as if the fish was truly alive and trapped in the wood and all that had to be done was take off enough layers to free it. It was mind-boggling.

He wasn’t sure how much time he spent there, watching the Fool’s magic hands pull a fish out of that wood with the even breath of his wolf sending the shavings tumbling. So engrossed was he in his friend’s handiwork that he only looked up when he saw the tawny hands visibly slow. Glancing at a window told him that the sun was in the last stages of setting, and it seemed like they would have to light a lantern or some candles if this was something they wanted to continue. Fitz looked at the Fool’s face and found him smiling. _He’s about to say something very wicked_ , he thought.

“You look like a cow, staring at me like that. I would call you a bull but you might take it the wrong way,” he made his eyebrows dance suggestively, but it was clear that he was exhausted. “I don’t very much like the idea of cleaning all this up and going to sleep in a different room. Can’t we just rest here?” he asked as he gradually got up and placed some rejected burls and branches into the fireplace.

“I don’t want to sleep on sawdust, Fool,” he responded as he absently scratched behind Nighteyes’ ear. He did not try to sound too adamant because he could already see the Fool busying himself with clearing a space around them. He yawned and tried to ignore the simple joy of the fox’s dreams ebbing into his mind.

“For someone raised in a barn you have some lofty standards,” the Fool joked before he pulled down their coats and a square of fabric from a table near the door. “Then again, it’s probably that pesky _royal upbringing_ getting in the way of simple comforts.”

Fitz looked up as the Fool gestured for him to lay down in the space he’d quickly brushed clear of most of the wood. He moved over without putting up another weak rebuttal.

_Stop moving. You’re interrupting my rest_

_Sorry Nighteyes. Fool wants to go to bed now_

_Why am I involved in you sleeping with him?_

_Did you have to phrase it like that?_

The wolf only snorted in response while the Fool lit up the fireplace and draped them both with the makeshift pile of blankets as he lay down next to him. There was silence for a few moments, and then the Fool’s voice.

“You’re not that bad at it considering it’s your first go. We can try again tomorrow, if you want.”

Fitz lay there looking up at the roof for a beat before speaking honestly. “I would rather just watch you.”

“If you’re trying to seduce me, you’re wasting your time Fitzy-Fitz. I’m already smitten,” the fool whispered giddily

“That’s not what I-“

“Yes yes, I know. You were just being honest. Please go to sleep now. I think Nighteyes might bite one of us if we don’t stop talking.”

_The scentless one is right._

_I don’t like you very much, wolf_

Fitz felt the thread of Nighteyes’ amusement pass into his mind as he let himself drift into a blissful sleep.


End file.
